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In a relatively short time, many European governments have been purposefully dropping the notion ‘multicultural’ or other references to cultural diversity in their policy vocabularies. More and more politicians and public intellectuals have criticized a perceived shift towards ‘too much diversity’. This volume goes beyond the conventional approaches to the topic offering a careful examination of not only the social conditions and political questions surrounding multiculturalism but also the recent emergence of a ‘backlash’ against multicultural initiatives, programmes and infrastructures. Featuring case-study based contributions from leading experts throughout Europe and North America, this multidisciplinary work seeks to assess some of these key questions with reference to recent and current trends concerning multiculturalism, cultural diversity and integration in their respective countries, evaluating questions such as Is there is a common ‘sceptical turn’ against cultural diversity or a ‘backlash against difference’ sweeping Europe? How have public discourses impacted upon national and local diversity management and migration policies? Are the discourses and policy shifts actually reflected in everyday practices within culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse settings? The Multiculturalism Backlash provides new insights, informed reflections and comparative analyses concerning these significant processes surrounding politics, policy, public debates and the place of migrants and ethnic minorities within European societies today. Focusing on the practice and policy of multiculturalism from a comparative perspective this work will be of interest to scholars from a wide range of disciplines including migration, anthropology and sociology. \"In Western European politics, \"the end of multiculturalism\" has become a dogma. Here is finally a book that reopens the debate by distinguishing between political rhetoric, public opinion and public policies.\" - Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute, Florence \"Orchestrated predictions about \"the end of multiculturalism\" are shown, in this alert but finely-tuned collection, as emanating from a panic choir without a common score. Judiciously choosing seven European and two Canadian contrasts, it shows this empirically and deepens it theoretically.\" - Gerd Baumann, University of Amsterdam 1. Introduction: assessing the backlash against multiculturalism in Europe Steven Vertovec and Susanne Wessendorf 2. The Rise and Fall of Multiculturalism? New Debates on Inclusion and Accommodation in Diverse Societies Will Kymlicka 3. British and Others: From ‘Race’ to ‘Faith’ Ralph Grillo 4. From Toleration to Repression:The Dutch backlash against multiculturalism Baukje Prins and Sawitri Saharso 5. ‘We’re not all Multiculturalists Yet’: France Swings Between Hard Integration and Soft Anti-discrimination Patrick Simon 6. Denmark versus Multiculturalism Ulf Hedetoft 7. Switzerland: A Multicultural Country Without Multicultural Policies? Gianni d’Amato 8. Germany: Integration Policy and Pluralism in a Self-conscious Country of Immigration Karen Schönwälder 9. Multicultural questions in Spain: the ambivalence of Spanish public opinion Ricard Zapata-Barrero 10. Multiculturalism: a Canadian Defence David Ley Steven Vertovec is Director of the Max-Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen and Honorary Joint Professor of Sociology and Ethnology, University of Göttingen. Previously he was Professor of Transnational Anthropology at the Institute of Social andCultural Anthropology, University of Oxford and Director of the British Economic and Social ResearchCouncil’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS). Susanne Wessendorf is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Max-Planck Institute for the Study Of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany. She has previously been an assistant lecturer At The Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Berne, Switzerland.

\"Immigration and Conflict in Europe explains why we observe clashes between immigrants and natives and between immigrants and state actors in some locations but not in others; it presents a wealth of qualitative and quantitative materials on immigrant conflict in Great Britain, Germany, and France from the postwar years until the beginning of the twenty-first century\"--Provided by publisher.

Scholars have devoted considerable energy to understanding the history of ethnic cleansing in Europe, reconstructing specific events, state policies, and the lived experiences of victims. Yet much less attention has been given to how these incidents persist in collective memory today. This volume brings together interdisciplinary case studies conducted in Central and Eastern European cities, exploring how present-day inhabitants \"remember\" past instances of ethnic cleansing, and how they understand the cultural heritage of groups that vanished in their wake. Together these contributions offer insights into more universal questions of collective memory and the formation of national identity.

\"This is a history of a stateless people, the Carpatho-Rusyns, and their historic homeland, Carpathian Rus', located in the heart of central Europe. At the present, when it is fashionable to speak of nationalities as 'imagined communities' or as transnational constructs 'created' by intellectuals\\elites who may live in the historic 'national' homeland or in the diaspora, Carpatho-Rusyns provide an ideal example of a people made--or some would say still being made--before our very eyes. The book traces the evolution of Carpathian Rus' from earliest pre-historic times to the present and the complex manner in which a distinct Carpatho-Rusyn people, since the mid-nineteenth century, came into being, disappeared, and then re-appeared in the wake of the revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of Communist rule in central and eastern Europe. The book, while based on the author's four decades of erudition on the subject, eschews scholarly jargon and is written in an accessible reader-friendly style\"--Provided by publisher.

Among the tremendous changes affecting Europe in recent decades, those concerning political frontiers have been some of the most significant. International borders are being opened in some regions while being redefined or reinforced in others. The social relationships of those living in these borderland regions are also changing fundamentally. This volume investigates, from a local, ground-up perspective, what is happening at some of these border encounters: face-to-face interactions and relations of compliance and confrontation, where people are bargaining, exchanging goods and information, and maneuvering beyond state boundaries. Anthropological case studies from a number of European borderlands shed light on the questions of how, and to what extent, the border context influences the changing interactions and social relationships between people at a political frontier.

Multiculturalism has long been linked to calls for tolerance of cultural diversity, but today many observers are subjecting the concept to close scrutiny. After the political upheavals of 1968, the commitment to multiculturalism was perceived as a liberal manifesto, but in the post-9/11 era, it is under attack for its relativizing, particularist, and essentializing implications. The essays in this collection offer a nuanced analysis of the multifaceted cultural experience of Central Europe under the late Habsburg monarchy and beyond. The authors examine how culturally coded social spaces can be described and understood historically without adopting categories formerly employed to justify the definition and separation of groups into nations, ethnicities, or homogeneous cultures. As we consider the issues of multiculturalism today, this volume offers new approaches to understanding multiculturalism in Central Europe freed of the effects of politically exploited concepts of social spaces.

In a Western world suddenly acutely interested in Islam, one question has been repeatedly heard above the din: where are the Muslim reformers? As the number of Muslims living in the West grows, the question of what it means to be a Western Muslim becomes increasingly important to the futures of both Islam and the West. While the media are focused on radical Islam, this book claims that a silent revolution is sweeping Islamic communities in the West, as Muslims actively seek ways to live in harmony with their faith within a Western context. French, English, German, and American Muslims—women as well as men—are reshaping their religion into one that is faithful to the principles of Islam, dressed in European and American cultures, and definitively rooted in Western societies. The book's goal is to create an independent Western Islam, anchored not in the traditions of Islamic countries but in the cultural reality of the West. It begins by offering a fresh reading of Islamic sources, interpreting them for a Western context and demonstrating how a new understanding of universal Islamic principles can open the door to integration into Western societies. The author contends that Muslims can—indeed must—be faithful to their principles while participating fully in the civic life of Western secular societies. This book offers a vision of a new Muslim Identity that rejects the idea that Islam must be defined in opposition to the West.